Foreign relations and attitudes of foreign powers

Question 1

When and why was the Comintern established?

Answer 1

March 1919 to promote worldwide revolution

Question 2

What did Lenin want to create through the Comintern?

Answer 2

Communist parties abroad that would be loyal to Moscow and whose purpose was to overthrow foreign governments.

Question 3

How did the Russo-Polish war start?

Answer 3

The Bolsheviks attempted to export the revolution and in 1920 the red army invaded Poland
They expected the Polish working class to support them and revolt against the Polish government

Question 4

What was the response of the Polish?

Answer 4

The invasion failed as the Polish resisted what they saw as traditional Russian expansionist aggression

Question 5

Following the Russo-Polish war what did Lenin start to question?

Answer 5

How realistic and imminent an international revolution was- so although the Comintern continued to work towards a world revolution, failure to export the revolution to Poland, Germany and Hungary meant that Bolsheviks recognised the strength of capitalist nations.

Question 6

What did the Soviet Union sign in 1922?

Answer 6

An agreement with Germany - ‘The Rapallo treaty’

Question 7

What did Germany and the SU have in common?

Answer 7

Germany had been isolated by the international community since the ToV and there was also great hostility towards soviet Russia as western nations feared the spread of communism and were angered by Lenin’s actions in the first world war

Question 8

What were the main terms of the Rapallo treaty?

Answer 8

Both countries agreed to cooperate in a spirit of mutual good will in meeting both countries economic needs
The re-establishment of diplomatic relations between R and G
Russia provide Germany with military training ground and resources
Russia allowed special trading rights in Germany

Question 9

What did the Rapallo treaty lead to and what did it represent?

Answer 9

The signing of the Treaty of Berlin

Treaty of Rapallo represented a way out of diplomatic isolation as they were both ‘outlaw’ states in 1922

Question 10

What was the Treaty of Berlin and when was it signed?

Answer 10

24 April 1926
A non-aggression pact between the two nations in which they agreed that neither nation would get involved if another power invaded one of them.

Question 11

In what way were Russian- British relations looking positive in 1921?

Answer 11

The Anglo-Soviet trade agreement had been signed in March 1921 allowing greater trade between the countries

Question 12

When was the Communist Party of Great Britain founded and with whose support?

Answer 12

1920-1921 with the support of the Comintern and had sought to influence the British labour party

Question 13

What happened on the 25th of October 1924?

Answer 13

Four days before the British general election the Daily Mail published a letter allegedly written by Zinoviev (the head of Comintern) urging the communist party of Britain to infiltrate the labour party in order to extend Leninism to Britain
Produced to influence public opinion against the Labour party

Question 14

What were the results of the Zinoviev letter?

Answer 14

Reinforced the view that the British labour party were too closely linked to Soviet Russia
Zinoviev claimed that the letter had been forged but the Conservatives were elected into British government (by apparently the labour vote was not undermined by the incident)
The new conservative government were much more hostile to soviet relations so relations again broke down - at the time when exporting rev was being downplayed by Bolsheviks and FP under Chicherin was ready to look outwards- instead diplomatic isolation of Russia strengthened

Question 15

When did Lenin die?

Answer 15

January 1924

Question 16

What had Lenin promised v what he delivered?

Answer 16

Promised peace, bread and land
Delivered a brutal civil war, a famine, Soviet democracy had been usurped by the party, NEP = unsuccessful because compromise was capitalist

Question 17

In what key way was Lenin successful?

Answer 17

He had succeeded in his prime goal - the communists had seized and retained power - he hoped in time the party would lead Russia and the world to Communism
Left behind a highly centralised one party state (but a state that faced many problems)

Question 18

What and when was the change from Russia to USSR?

Answer 18

December 1922 Lenin established creation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Comprised of Russia and other republics - essentially a multi-national communist state in which each republic would possess its own government as part of a federal structure

Question 19

What was foreign intervention in the civil war?

Answer 19

From 1918-20 foreign troops were stationed in widespread areas of conflict: from the Baltic Sea, to the Black sea, to the Far east
Though the geographical scope of these interventions was vast, the number of troops engaged was small and they did little direct fighting but at the time, foreign intervention seemed like an existential threat to the survival of Bolshevik Russia

Question 20

What were the reasons for foreign intervention?

Answer 20

In 1918 the main reason was to keep Russia fighting in the first world war, to prevent, or delay the mass transfer of German forces from the Eastern front to the west
A lesser motive was to protect the vast dumps of armaments and war materials that had been shipped to Russia by the allies
After the German armistice in November in 1918, the first motive no longer applied but intervention continued because of the wish to support anti-Bolshevik forces
Intervention also continued because of divisions and muddled thinking within allied governments

Question 21

What were the divisions and muddled thinking in the foreign interventions?

Answer 21

US troops provided the largest intervention forces. 11,00 at Vladivostok and 4500 in North Russia but president Wilson was not convinced about their purpose - US forces pulled out of Russia in June 1919 (but remained in V until 1920)
France was eager to support white armies in South Russia but had policy differences with Britain
Governments also undecided about which, if any anti-Bolshevik leaders to support, Kolchak/Denikin etc or neither
There was little-no coordination between foreign forces

Question 22

What were the British divisions over intervention in Russia?

Answer 22

Britain developed naval forces in the Baltic and in the Black sea but only very small detachments of troops
Some British politicians wanted maximum effort to ‘smash Bolshevism’ but socialists and trade unionists in Britain strongly opposed intervention
Britain settled on a futile, contradictory policy of ‘no interference in Russia but aiding white armies when possible’

Question 23

What was a problem for allied governments in the civil war?

Answer 23

They had little accurate or up to date knowledge of what was happening so were often out of touch
In the absence of normal diplomatic activity , governments depended on a handful of individuals who sent snippets of information but these reports were sometimes misleading, encouraging some wishful thinking or sometimes they were reliable but ignored.
Sometimes they were seen by the Bolsheviks as sympathisers and sometimes as enemy spies

Question 24

What were examples of foreign spies in Russia?

Answer 24

American journalist - John Reed
Sidney Reilly - a British intelligence agent who strongly supported Anti-bolshevism
Robert Bruce Lockhart - a young British diplomat who was twice arrested as a ‘British spy’ before being thrown out of Russia

Question 25

What did the confusion and uncertainty of allied governments as to how to respond to Bolshevik Russia involve?

Answer 25

Attempts at peace-making as well as military intervention - in 1919 a secret American diplomatic mission to Moscow briefly raised hopes for a possible compromise peace

Question 26

What and why was Lenin’s peace offer? (civil war)

Answer 26

March 1919 - Wilson sent a US diplomat, William Bullitt on a secret mission to discuss peace - Lenin was at the time worried about anti-Bolshevik victories and the impact of an allied blockade of trade and shipping to Russia so offered big concessions in return for a ceasefire and end to the blockade - Lenin was prepared to tolerate the continuation of temporary (anti-Bolshevik) governments in parts of Russia

Question 27

What was the outcome of Lenin’s peace offer?

Answer 27

Britain and France were hostile to Bullitt’s deal, and Wilson did not back Bullitt so the peace plan collapsed and the civil war continued until the Bolsheviks achieved total victory

Question 28

What was the impact of foreign intervention?

Answer 28

It didn’t bring down the Bolshevik regime (on such a small scale with little coordination and direct military action that the chances of doing so were small
Most allied troops remained in their bases only fighting small battles
Bolshevik survival secured by success of RA under Trotsky + disorganisation among anti-Bolsheviks
B and F briefly considered a renewed attempt at intervention but didn’t
Nov 1920 - British cabinet agreed to negotiate a trade deal with Bolshevik Russia this accepting recognition o of the soviet state

Question 29

What are the opposing views on he impact of foreign intervention?

Answer 29

Some argue that the interventions, although small, poisoned relations between soviet Russia and the west in the long term
Others argue that relations between Russia and the west would have stayed the same anyway

Question 30

Who had the most battle deaths in the civil war?

Answer 30

Russia - 500,000
Britain - 345
US - 275 
France - 48 
Japan - 1550

Question 31

What was the Comintern?

Answer 31

An international socialist organisation promoting Marxism and spreading ‘proletarian revolution’ from Russia to the world

Question 32

Where and when was the first Founding Congress of the Comintern held and who attented?

Answer 32

In Moscow in March 1919 - not all those invited were willing or able to attend but there were more than 50 delegated from all over Europe, the US, Australia and Japan
The Chairman of all the early Comintern Congresses was Zinoviev but the dominating influence was always Lenin

Question 33

Despite the first Comintern Congress taking place at a time when the regime was fighting against White armies, foreign intervention and national independence movements why was there great optimism for the prospect of the spread of revolution?

Answer 33

Germany was believed to be ripe for revolution despite the Spartacist uprising being brutally supressed in Jan 1919
There was an establishment of Soviet-style republics in Hungary and in Bavaria
Lenin, Trotsky and other prominent Bolshevik activists believed in the inevitability of world revolution

Question 34

What was the Spartacist uprising?

Answer 34

Communist revolutionaries in Germany launched an uprising in Berlin in December 1919 - the revolt was brutally crushed by armed German militias in January and the leaders of the Spartacists, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht were murdered

Question 35

When did the second Comintern Congress take place and what was it dominated by?

Answer 35

Petrograd, July-August 1920, at the height of the Russo-Polish war
Dominated by debates over Lenin’s ‘21 conditions’ defining the relationships between communist parties and ‘bourgeoise-democratic’ socialist parties. Some European delegations broke away from the Comintern as a result

Question 36

What was happening when the Second Comintern Congress opened?

Answer 36

The Red Army was on the verge of capturing Warsaw - the last-gasp Polish victory over Tukhachevsky’s army was a nasty shock to the delegates in Petrograd
Hopes that victory in Poland would be a springboard for Communism to sweep across Western-Europe were dashed
But 1920 still time of optimism - victory in civil war was certain, the last foreign forces were leaving + Bolshevik rule in Russia was secure

Question 37

What was happening by the time the Third Comintern Congress met in the summer of 1921?

Answer 37

There was a realisation that the world revolution was not as close as had been hoped - communist regimes and uprisings had all been crushed
Moderate socialist parties who renounced revolution were becoming established - instead of communist revolution
Germany was ruled by the ‘Bourgeoise democratic’ Weimar republic
Bolshevik Russia was alone in a capitalist world so the Comintern became totally Russian dominated

Question 38

What was the ‘Bourgeoise democratic’ Weimar republic

Answer 38

During WW1 there was a bitter split within German socialism -left wing extremists were outnumbered by moderate socialists within the socialist party of Germany
After the collapse of Imperial Germany in 198 - the leader of the SPD became head of government in the Weimar Republic
His willingness to compromise with middle class (bourgeoise) liberals was regarded by the left as a betrayal of the revolution

Question 39

What was the changed outlook from many of the Bolshevik leadership following the realisation world rev wasn’t likely?

Answer 39

Many were ready to play down international revolution in order to concentrate on pressing internal matters within Russia
The Comintern remained an important symbol and all Bolshevik leaders were at least outwardly committed to its aims, but the revolutionary force behind the Comintern slackenedhttps://www.brainscape.com/about

Question 40

What happened with the white armies in the Russo-Polish war?

Answer 40

The white armies were defeated by early 1920 and the last allied intervention forces were pulled out of the port on the Black Sea in May
Red Army still fighting a war with newly-independent Poland

Question 41

What was the re-creation of an independent Poland and why was it difficult to define?

Answer 41

One of the major commitments of the Allied-powers in the post-war peace settlement - new Poland contained excessive territories lost by the former Tsarist Empire -difficult to define borders of new Poland as Russia was not represented at any of the Paris Peace Conferences

Question 42

What were the peace conferences and treaties?

Answer 42

The post-war peace settlement of 1919-20 comprised numerous separate treaties designed to punish the losers in WW1 (Germany, Austria- Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. There were six treaties:
Treaty of Versailles 1919 (dealing with Germany)
Treaty of St Germain 1920 (dealing with Austria)
Treaty of Neuilly 1920 (dealing with Bulgaria)
Treaty of Trianon 1920 (dealing with Hungary)
Treaty of Sevres 1920 (dealing with Turkey)

Question 43

What was Poland like post and pre 1920?

Answer 43

In the 19th century, Poland had been split between Austria-Hungary, Prussia and Russia
At treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, Russia had renounced its claims to Poland
Following German defeat, Poland became an independent republic as confirmed by the ToV in June 1919
After the Russo-Polish war, Poland’s frontiers were settled in 1922 and internationally recognised in 1923

Question 44

What were the rival ambitions of Poland and Bolshevik Russia during the Russo-Polish war?

Answer 44

Made conflict likely - Polish head of state dreamed of expanding the borders of Poland far to the east
Lenin and the Bolsheviks saw Poland as a geographical bridge to the west - an essential route for exporting the revolution to Germany and the west

Question 45

What happened in 1918 and 1919 in the Russo-Polish war?

Answer 45

Poland fought a complicated war against Ukrainian nationalists which led to irregular fighting with the Red Army
Bolsheviks also fighting wars to supress independence movements in the Baltic states

Question 46

What happened in the Russo-Polish war in 1920?

Answer 46

April - Polish head of state made an alliance with a new Ukrainian military leader
The former enemies made a common cause against the Bolsheviks and launched an eastern offensive, towards Kiev - Kiev was occupied in May 1920
Had this happened in 1919 when Bolsheviks on defensive in civil war may have had an impact but by 1920 Bolsheviks had achieved string of victories whites so Lenin was more confident about Bolshevik strength - hopes of spreading rev = revived

Question 47

What did the red army launch in 1920 in the Russo-Polish war and what was the outcome?

Answer 47

A powerful counter-attack - Overstretched Polish forces crumbled and abandoned Kiev, they then began a rapid and humiliating retreat back to Warsaw - by August 1920 the Polish army seemed on the point of defeat until the Polish head of state (Pilsudski) mounted a desperate defence of Warsaw in the battle known to Polish nationalists as the ‘miracle of the Vistula’

Question 48

What was the outcome of miracle of the Vistula’

Answer 48

Warsaw was saved due to a counteroffensive from Pilsudski and the war settled into stalemate. Peace terms were agreed in October and formalised in the Treaty of Riga in March 1921

Question 49

What happened to the borders fixed at the treaty of Riga in 1921?

Answer 49

They didn’t last long - in 1940, Poland was carved up between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany under the terms of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
In 1945 - after the ‘liberation’ of Poland by the Red Army, Stalin enforced new borders on Poland, incorporating parts of eastern Poland into the SU; in the west Poland gained extensive territories from Germany

Question 50

In what way was Russia diplomatically isolated in 1921?

Answer 50

In 1919 along with Germany, it had been excluded from the LoN (the international organisation set up by the Paris Peace Conferences which aimed to achieve collective security by settling international disputes by negotiation

Question 51

Why was Russia excluded from the LoN?

Answer 51

A huge difference in ideology and fear
Stalin claimed they had no wish to join - didn’t want to be part of ‘camouflage for imperialist schemes represented by the LoN’

Question 52

What was accepted in terms of isolation?

Answer 52

As Lenin had to accept that world rev had been postponed, rest of the world had to accept Bolshevism wouldn’t disappear so while suspicion remained both sides accepted that the isolation of Russia couldn’t be absolute (especially in trade)

Question 53

When did Britain make a trade agreement with Russia and what did it represent?

Answer 53

When calling off intervention in Russia in 1920 the British government authorised making trade agreements (the point where Britain acknowledged the soviet state)

Question 54

Who was Lenin particularly interested in opening trade with and so what happened?

Answer 54

Germany so Georgy Chicherin (deputy commissar for foreign affairs) , became the new chief representative of the new constructive approach to soviet FP
1921 - several discussion with Germany
1922- Chicherin invited to the important international economic conference held in Genoa (major step towards soviet reintegration into foreign affairs
Led to closer cooperation between Chicherin and German representatives , which paved way for Rapallo

Question 55

What were the different articles of the Rapallo treaty?

Answer 55

1 and 2 agreed to waive claims for compensation arising from the first world war
3 concerned the reopening of formal diplomatic relations
4 and 5 dealt with mutual goodwill in commercial and economic relations
Secret additional agreement in July 1922, authorised the German army to carry out training and military exercises inside the USSR

Question 56

In later years what was great attention paid to in the Rapallo treaty?

Answer 56

Great attention was focused on the secret clauses of the Rapallo treaty relating to military cooperation - but the most important factors bringing the two together in the treaty were trade and diplomatic recognition

Question 57

What was collective security?

Answer 57

Key principle of the post war peace settlement - aiming to replace the dependence on military alliances between the great powers by joint measures by all members of LoN to prevent acts of aggression - especially important for new small states that emerged after war

Question 58

Who had forged the Zinoviev letter and what was the problem with it?

Answer 58

Produced by a group of conspirators led by Sidney Reilly, a British intelligence agent of very right-wing views who had been active in Russia during the revolution and civil war
Problem = many of the arguments put forwards in the fake letter were consistent with what Z believed and had previously said in public

Question 59

By the time of Lenin’s death in what way was he successful/ unsuccessful?

Answer 59

One party state achieved
Economy had recovered - some party members felt Lenin had betrayed the principles of Rev and that NEP was at best temporary
Society had not progressed as close to socialism as many had hoped - growing bureaucracy and worrying dependencies on its leader
Conflicts between policies and personalities dogged Lenin’s last years and looked set to creature future problems

Question 60

What is an example of trade with the SU?

Answer 60

In 1921, Armand Hammer (young American doctor and businessman) made a deal with Lenin to supply large consignments of pens and pencils for the Soviet drive to eradicate illiteracy. This deal with Lenin started him an a career which made him a multi-millionaire

Question 61

What was some of the foreign intervention in the civil war?

Answer 61

Aug 1918 - 9000 US troops landed at Vladivostok
Feb 1919 - Arrival of German forces in Latvia to oppose Red Army
Aug 1919 - British naval assault on Soviet battle fleet at Petrograd
Jan 1920 - allied government calls off blockade
March 1920 - defeated white armies evacuated by British war ships
Jun + Aug - Polish armies in Ukraine defeated by Red Army and then red army of invasion halted
Nov 1920 - trade agreement with Russia authorised by Britain government - recognition of Bolshevik state